


Barry Allen, Danger Bait

by BlackBat09



Category: Justice League (2017)
Genre: Crack, Father-Son Relationship, M/M, Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 11:04:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13122405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackBat09/pseuds/BlackBat09
Summary: Henry Allen loves his son. He doesn't love the sort of men that his son attracts.





	Barry Allen, Danger Bait

**Author's Note:**

> I came out of Justice League shipping Batflash something fierce, but I'll always be a Coldflash shipper thanks to the TV show, so uh. Here's a bit of both, and poor Henry Allen having to deal with it.

Henry Allen loves his son. He loves Barry more than anything else on the planet, his shining star, his brilliant son- all Henry has left, with Nora gone. Seeing Barry every week is the highlight of his dull existence in Iron Heights, the one ray of hope Henry has left, despite the fact that he knows he’s not getting out anytime soon, no matter how many times Barry insists his new job as a lab tech is gonna lead him to the real killer.

When Barry told Henry he was bringing someone with this week, someone special, he figured it’d be Iris, the pretty girl that Barry had met at a coffee shop one day and couldn’t stop talking about during his visits.

What Henry didn’t expect was Bruce Wayne.

Barry’s fingers are tapping nervously against the receiver on the other side of the thick glass, his whole body tense even as Wayne seems to just sprawl out in the chair next to him, casual despite their surroundings. He’s not overdressed, but he’s certainly more polished than Barry, whose black shirt and worn-thin flannel hang overlarge on his slim frame, while Wayne’s deep gray sweater is well-tailored, fit to his broad shoulders and rolled up neatly to show his upper arms.

Henry doesn’t like him.

“Dad, I just- I wanted you to meet Bruce. He’s already met Iris, and I- I took him to see Mom, so I wanted him to meet you, now. He means a lot to me. He’s, uh-” Barry glances at Wayne nervously, teeth worrying at his bottom lip, and the billionaire smiles congenially, nodding his head. “He’s my boyfriend.”

Henry snorts a little, shaking his head, even as Barry pouts at him- the last thing Bruce Wayne can be called is a _boy_ , when he’s closer to Henry’s age than Barry’s, when he’s got a ward, a son, that’s about the same age as Barry. Boyfriend- _right_. Like Henry trusts Bruce Wayne not to break his son’s heart, shatter it into a million pieces.

He hasn’t been so worried about his boy’s heart since Len Snart was talking to his sister a booth over and caught sight of Barry as he went towards the exit, leaning in and telling Henry, loud enough for Barry to hear through the glass, “That’s a handsome boy you got there, Doc.”

Snart had winked, and Barry had flushed crimson from his hair to his collar as Snart’s sister giggled next to Barry.

But Bruce Wayne- Bruce Wayne is more dangerous to Barry than Lenny Snart will ever be, because Snart is locked in the Heights and Bruce Wayne is sitting next to his son, hand twitching towards Barry’s to try and stop the boy as he starts nervously picking his lip.

“Dad, he, uh- he really means a lot to me, y’know? I wanted you guys to meet. Bruce is- he means a lot.”

 _I love him_. Barry doesn’t have to say it for Henry to understand what he means, to know what he’s trying to get across. He loves so easy, Henry’s boy, with his big heart and his endless optimism, sweet enough to love a man who’s nothing more than a playboy and a schmoozer.

“Hand your friend the phone, son,” he tells Barry, who nods, eyes still a little wet as he worries his lip between his teeth and passes Bruce Wayne the receiver.

“Dr. Allen,” Wayne greets with that polite smile.

“Mr. Wayne,” Henry replies, not smiling.

“It really is a pleasure to meet you, sir. Barry’s told me a lot about you. You mean the world to him,” Wanye tells him, and, while Henry feels a surge of warmth towards his son, he’s still not smiling at the billionaire in front of him. “It’s a shame we have to meet like this, but I’m glad we can meet.”

“What are your intentions with my son, Mr. Wayne?” Henry asks, cutting right to the chase, refusing to get charmed. Wayne’s smile falls, the facade slipping away for a second, before it returns, more careful, more _real_. Henry can feel it.

“Barry means… so much to me, Dr. Allen. What I intend is to show him that as best I can without disrupting his life too much. I want him to be a part of my life, yes, but I want to be a part of his. Come to Central, meet his friends, meet you.” He sighs. “I’d love to parade him around, too, but god knows the media is relentless and unforgiving and I… I don’t want to expose Barry to that scrutiny.”

Henry does appreciate that, at least, Wayne trying to spare Barry the pain of having the media dig through their pasts, but he’s still not happy.

“Take care of my boy, Mr. Wayne. He’s all I have left, you understand that?” Wayne nods, solemn, and Henry feels his shoulders relax a little.

“I’d protect him with my life, Dr. Allen,” the billionaire murmurs, and Henry, despite himself, believes him. He nods and Wayne hands the phone back to Barry, who’s been picking his lip so much that it should be bleeding but isn’t- he wonders if Barry realizes but decides not to bring it up.

“Y’know, Dad, Bruce is, uh- he’s actually Jewish. On his mom’s side, his mom was- was Jewish.” Henry knows why Barry brought it up, knows Barry is trying to give Wayne more of a chance to earn Henry’s approval.

“Is he really?” Wayne chuckles before he leans into the receiver, leans in until his lips are near Barry’s, sharing the phone with him.

“Yes, sir, Dr. Allen. I haven’t always been on top of the faith, but Barry’s been helping me get back in the swing of things.”

“That’s my boy,” Henry murmurs, smiling warmly at his son. Barry’s grinning like the sun at both of them, looking between Henry and Wayne like they both complete his world. Maybe, just maybe, Henry can learn to accept Bruce Wayne’s presence in his son’s life.

Wayne’s presence during the visit means that Henry never gets a chance to ask Barry about the _other_ things happening in his life, the things that Barry has tried to hide despite the fact that his son never has been a good liar. The biggest thing being, of course, the Flash.

It wasn’t long after Barry missed a visit that the Scarlet Streak started appearing around Central, leaving only a trail of lightning where it ran and capturing the attention of nearly everyone in the Heights, who crowded in the common room to watch the news reports and take bets on how long it’d be before Gotham-style psychos arrived in Central to challenge their new hero. Many of the inmates themselves wanted a shot at the Streak, but Henry was more concerned about his son than he was the superhero.

Of course, those worries became one and the same when Barry showed up the next weekend, sheepishly explaining that he’d been struck by lightning and spent about a week under observation at Central City General.

It didn’t take a man of Barry’s intellect to realize that the boy was the Flash.

Between monitoring by guards and the fact that there never seemed to be a day where he and Barry were alone in the visiting room, Henry hadn’t had the chance to bring up his son’s alter ego beyond saying he supports the masked hero.

Barry shrugs at the topic and says nothing more.

Henry lets it be, up until he sees footage of the Flash fighting some robot with a glowing green chest alongside Cyborg, the Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Superman, and Gotham’s Batman. Then, as he sees his son knocked around by that same robot, which seems to weaken even Superman, Henry swears he feels his heart stop. And maybe drop somewhere around his stomach. It shoves his stomach down towards his knees somewhere. Essentially, none of Henry is in the right place, and he can only hope that it isn’t too obvious.

“Lookin’ kinda green, Doc,” is the only warning Henry gets before Mick Rory pulls up a seat next to him, sitting backwards in the chair, burn-scarred arms crossed over the back of the plastic seat. Len Snart pulls up a chair on Henry’s other side, somehow managing to recline in the stiff plastic.

“I’m sure our Scarlet Speedster will be fine, Henry. He’ll bounce right back. He’s a sprightly thing,” Len muses, leaning against his hands as he studies the screen. “See? There he goes now.”

Henry turns to watch Barry pushing to his feet, armored hands scrabbling at the broken walls of a destroyed building, looking a little shaky, and his own fingers curl into the gray material of his prison-issue pants as he watches his son struggle to stand. He can barely be proud of his boy for fighting so valiantly when he sees Barry holding his head- all he can do is worry.

What he doesn’t expect is to see the Batman, badly battered, stagger over to Barry to check on him. His son tries to wave the man off, but the Bat is persistent, reaching out to touch Barry, pulling him in before looking over towards the others, Wonder Woman and the Aquaman jogging over to help both of them. As Wonder Woman supports Batman and the Aquaman supports Barry, Henry watches the Batman reach out to take Flash’s hand for just a moment, and Barry squeezes it ever so slightly before they separate.

He has to pause for a second, to think it over, to analyze the situation, and he comes to one awful, _awful_ conclusion: Bruce Wayne is the Batman.

It makes sense, almost, that Gotham’s favorite son would also suit up to protect it by night, but it’s also on the way to giving Henry his second heart attack of the night. His son dating Bruce Wayne the billionaire is bad enough, but his son dating _the Batman_? That’s not acceptable, especially not when the man is dragging Barry out to fight enemies that can take down _Superman_.

“Snart?”

“Yeah, Doc?” the younger man asks, tilting his head to look at Henry with an interested glance. Rory’s gaze lands on Henry, too, heavy and making Henry’s hair stand up, but he presses on.

“If I were to owe you favor, do you think that the next time you and Rory are, uh… _free_ , you could go check in on my boy?” Henry asks, regretting it the moment a shark-like grin spreads across Snart’s face.

“Oh, Doc Allen,” Snart chuckles. “To look in on your lovely Barry? Why, I wouldn’t even need a favor. Why is it he needs checking up on?”

Henry swallows, fingers curling in his pants again, trying not to grind his teeth; he needs this, to protect his boy, to make sure his son is alright. “He’s started dating… _Bruce Wayne_ ,” he grits out, and Rory bursts out laughing.

“Doc, buddy, a chance to see your boy and shake down Wayne? Count me in,” Mick gets out through his laughter, and Snart lays a hand on Henry’s shoulder, squeezing lightly, his grin still just as unnerving.

“We’d be happy to ensure that Mister Wayne hasn’t done anything… _untoward_ , to your boy.”

Henry tries to remind himself that Len Snart is a nice Jewish young man ( _nice_ as far as _not killing anyone,_ even if he is a thief), one who’s stuck closer to the faith than Bruce Wayne, and one who’s closer to his son’s age. Whether that outweighs the felonies, Henry’s not sure, but he’ll take felon over Batman.

Well, he thinks that, until Snart and Rory break out. It turns out their idea of “checking up” on Barry, whether they realize it or not, is by suiting up to take on the Flash in an epic showdown in midtown Central, Snart in a ridiculous ice-blue parka and wielding some sort of _ice gun_ , Rory in an off-white suit that seems to be fireproof, if the way he walks through the _flames_ that come from his _wrist gauntlets_ are any indication. Henry can’t bear to watch, burying his head in his hands until a groan goes up among the assembled convicts and he dares to take a peek.

Barry has both Snart and Rory on the ground, zipping over to disarm them before swiping two sets of handcuffs off the officers forming a perimeter, cuffing the criminals- are they supervillains now?- before depositing them in front of the police.

Henry mutters a blessing for his son’s health and safety as the inmates disperse, complaining about Snart and Rory losing to the Flash, about the shit they’re gonna get for when they get back to the Heights, but Henry just hopes that the two got a chance to check in on Barry before he kicked their asses up and down the block. He wants to know how his son is, other than frostbitten and burnt.

It doesn’t take long after the two man are booked again for them to seek Henry out, once again boxing him in, one at each shoulder in the cafeteria line.

“Ain’t miss this on the outside,” Mick gruffs, making a face at his tray and giving the inmate behind the line a nod as they move on.

Henry forces a chuckle as he picks up his own tray; kosher, like Leonard’s; and is steered towards a table by the two criminals at his shoulders. “You hit up Big Belly Burger while you were out?”

“It’s just not Central without Triple-B,” Snart agrees, the three of them setting down together at a table, where Henry sits and stares at his tray. “Oh, Doc, by the way- we had a chance to check in on your boy while we were out.”

It starts Rory chuckling, even with his mouth full, covering his mouth as his broad shoulders shake. “Oh, we did,” he huffs after swallowing his food, grinning over at Snart. “Tell ‘im, Lenny.”

The shark grin makes another appearance on Snart’s face, and Henry resists the urge to grab his cutlery to defend himself. “Well, Doc Allen, Wayne seems to have gotten your Barry a nice apartment and stocked his kitchen rather well,” Leonard drawls in that way of his, idly poking at his meat with his fork. “As for Barry himself, well.”

The pause is weighty enough that Henry tears his gaze away from Leonard’s sharp smirk to meet his eyes, the blue just as icy as the ray he’d been shooting at Barry just the other day. “Yes?”

“That’s one quick kid you’ve got, Doc. Barry packs a hell of a punch.”

The pointed statement spears Henry right through the heart, and it’s only Mick’s hand on his shoulder, just a little too tight, that keeps him from getting lost in his own head. “Had a lotta fun _checkin’ up on him_. Might have to do it again next time we bust out.”

Henry simply buries his face in his hands once more.

His son is never going to find a nice, _safe_ person to settle down with. At this rate, Barry will get him out of prison first.

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up at blackbat16 on tumblr if you'd like to chat!


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